Egyptian Cinema: The Hollywood of the Arab World and the Films to Watch

Why is Egypt called the Hollywood of the Arab world?

For most of the 20th century Egypt made the great majority of Arabic-language films, and its stars, songs and dialect became familiar from Casablanca to Baghdad.

Moving pictures reached Egypt almost as soon as they were invented: Lumière films were shown in Alexandria in 1896. In 1935 the economist Talaat Harb, founder of Banque Misr, set up Studio Misr in Giza, a fully equipped studio intended to build a national industry, and its first feature, Widad (1936), starred Umm Kulthum. By the 1940s and 1950s Cairo was producing dozens of films a year, many of them musicals built around singers, and exporting them across the region. The influence is still audible: Arabs from other countries often understand Egyptian Arabic because they grew up on Egyptian films and television.

What was the golden age of Egyptian cinema?

From roughly the 1940s to the 1960s, Cairo's studios produced the musicals, melodramas and social dramas that Egyptians still watch on television every holiday.

• The stars: Faten Hamama, the "Lady of the Arabic Screen"; Omar Sharif, born Michel Chalhoub in Alexandria, who married Hamama before finding international fame in Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago; singers turned actors such as Layla Murad, Abdel Halim Hafez and Mohammed Abdel Wahab; and dancers such as Samia Gamal and Tahia Carioca.
• The directors: Salah Abu Seif, the realist of Cairo's alleys, and Youssef Chahine (1926–2008), Egypt's most celebrated filmmaker, honoured at Cannes in 1997 for his life's work.
• The writers: Naguib Mahfouz, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1988, wrote screenplays and saw many of his novels filmed, including the Cairo Trilogy.

The industry was nationalised in the 1960s, and the decades that followed brought both bold auteur films and a flood of commercial comedies, led by the comic actor Adel Imam, whose career spanned more than half a century. For the music that drove so many of these films, read our guide to Egyptian music.

Which Egyptian films should you watch before your trip?

Start with Cairo Station and The Night of Counting the Years, then add a modern film such as Yomeddine or Clash to see how Egypt looks at itself today.

The Night of Counting the Years is a perfect companion to a day on Luxor's west bank: the cache it dramatises was found in a tomb shaft in the cliffs near the Temple of Hatshepsut, and the mummies of pharaohs such as Seti I and Ramesses II now lie in Cairo's National Museum of Egyptian Civilization. Availability on streaming services in Australia and New Zealand changes, so search before you go.

What is modern Egyptian cinema like?

Alongside a large commercial industry of comedies, action films and holiday blockbusters, a generation of independent Egyptian directors has won major international prizes since the 2010s.

A.B. Shawky's Yomeddine competed for the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 2018, and Omar El Zohairy's absurdist Feathers won the Critics' Week Grand Prize there in 2021. Documentary has been strong too: Jehane Noujaim's The Square, about Tahrir Square in 2011, was nominated for an Academy Award. At home, the biggest box-office weeks are the two Eid holidays, when studios release their star vehicles and cinemas sell out; our guide to Eid in Egypt explains the holiday. Ramadan, meanwhile, is the peak season for television drama, with families gathering after iftar to watch the year's big series.

Which international films were shot in Egypt?

The best known is the 1978 Death on the Nile, filmed on location on the river and at Aswan's Old Cataract hotel, along with the 1977 James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me, shot at the Giza pyramids and Karnak.

The 1978 Agatha Christie adaptation used the paddle steamer SS Sudan, which still sails the Nile as a cruise boat, and the terraces of the Old Cataract, where Christie herself stayed; the hotel's Agatha Christie suite trades on the link. The 2022 remake, by contrast, was largely filmed on sets in England. Plenty of other productions have shot in Egypt over the decades, but filming at monuments needs official permits, which is why so many "Egyptian" scenes in Hollywood films were actually shot elsewhere. If old hotels with film history appeal, see our guide to Egypt's historic hotels.

Which film festivals are held in Egypt?

The Cairo International Film Festival, usually held in November at the Cairo Opera House, and the El Gouna Film Festival on the Red Sea, usually in October, are the two big events, with smaller festivals in Luxor and Aswan.

• Cairo International Film Festival: founded in 1976 and one of the oldest in the region, running for about ten days with many public screenings; see Egypt in November.
• El Gouna Film Festival: founded in 2017, a glamorous red-carpet event in the lagoon town of El Gouna; dates move and an edition has been postponed before, so check.
• Luxor African Film Festival and Aswan International Women Film Festival: smaller festivals, usually held early in the year; dates vary.

Can you go to the cinema in Egypt?

Yes: modern multiplexes in Cairo's malls show Hollywood releases in English with Arabic subtitles, while Egyptian films are usually shown without English subtitles. Tickets are inexpensive by Australian standards. For something different, downtown Cairo still has grand mid-century cinemas along Talaat Harb Street, and the independent Zawya cinema screens Arab and international art-house films, often with English subtitles; check its current programme and venue. Seeing an Egyptian comedy with a local audience, even without understanding every line, is a memorable evening: laughter, commentary and the occasional phone call are all part of the experience.